Hooray! Booked our 1st Cruise - Ryndam S suite - Alaska 2007

[Silverwing]

Firstly thank you to everyone here who has helped us make decisions about our trip to Alaska.

Having been ready to book for ages, I was so pleased to read that HAL had opened 2007 Alaska bookings yesterday. Unfortunately the HAL office here in England isn't open over the weekend, so we couldn't use our travel agent to book until tomorrow (Monday) morning. We decided this afternoon not to wait and managed to book on the internet through the HAL site. It took a while, but thrilled that we persevered, as there was only one starboard S suite available and it was the one we wanted S-015! Brilliant! It will be our first cruise (travelling with husband plus daughter-20 and son-15) and will be part of very special holiday visiting friends in Vancouver and Nanaimo before the cruise and two weeks travelling independently in Alaska afterwards. I've read so much since finding this wonderful site - all so interesting and helpful. I'm sure that HAL will be perfect for us and even better with all the suite privileges. Now we just have to wait a year or so before our Alaska experience! I'm already really excited.........!

[RuthC]

Congratulations, Silverwing. But would you please try to keep the excitement down to a low roar? We can hear you way over on this side of the pond! :D

[WindyCity]

Congratulations on booking your first cruise - Alaska & HAL are wonderful. The Suite experience is excellent. Make sure you get some "Glacier Bailey's" while in Glacier Bay - it's Hot chocolate with Bailey's & comes in a thermal souvenir mug.

Also, a paperback called Alaska by Cruise Ship - is an excellent companion on the cruise. It has history, maps, wildlife information I read it before our first cruise to Alaska and brought it along on the cruise - we referred to it constantly.

In Juneau, we picked up a "leatherette" photo album that has the map of Alaska embossed on the cover. This holds all of our Alaskan cruise photos. I ended up having to order another online because we had more photos than the album will hold, so make sure you bring lots of film or digital cards.

Have a great cruise - anticipation & preparation are half the fun!

[twinkletoes4445]

Congratulations! We're also looking forward to our first HAL cruise... :)

[Krazy Kruizers]

[B]Congratluations!!

We had quite a time booking last June for this June. HAL wouldn't open up any of the suites on either the Ryndam or the Statendam as they were reserving them for the land tour packages - as if everyone on a land tour is going to book a suite - I don't think so!!! And we pointed it out to them. After much ado for 3 weeks between us and our TA we were finally able to book our suite for back-to-back cruises. By private means we were able to keep track of how many people on the land tours have booked suites on our cruises - only 2 couples on the first cruise and only 1 couple on the second cruise!!!B]

[5 in OK]

Silverwing

I am so glad you're booked! I say anticipation is half the fun!! I hope you have a wonderful time with your family!!!:)